housing

• Health inequality


  Differences in health status or in the distribution of health determinants between different population groups
• Housing


  • Poor quality housing can be detrimental to someone's health both physically and mentally
  • Poor-quality housing is more expensive to heat, which can lead to health problems, particularly for elderly people
• The charity National Energy Action (NEA) has estimated that the total number of households across the UK in fuel poverty increased from around 4 million in summer 2020 to 6.7 million in October 2022
• These people will struggle to keep their home adequately heated during the winter, leading to a huge number of health problems and even deaths
• Individualist argument


  • Simply improving the quality of housing will not immediately solve health problems
  • Most people living in poor-quality housing are in lower social classes, so may have other factors affecting their health such as higher rates of smoking and drinking or a poor diet
• A 2021 study carried out in the UK found that the relationship between housing and health is complex as this is influenced by many other related factors such as income and individual lifestyles